President Barack Obama on Thursday elevated Tunisia to new allied status, promising financial and security assistance to ensure the North African country’s transition to democracy remains a success in a fragile region. Obama announced in an Oval Office meeting with newly elected Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi that he intends …

Kurdish forces have driven the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group from more than a dozen Assyrian Christian villages that the jihadists had captured in northeastern Syria, a monitor said May 27. “Following a 10-day offensive, Kurdish fighters took control early this week of 14 Assyrian villages …

Russia has scrapped its controversial deal with France to buy two Mistral-class warships and is now designing its own alternative to the vessels, according to a source from Russia’s state military industrial complex. The €1.2bn deal, agreed between Russia and France in 2011, was initially planned to see two Mistral-class …